Subject: SAICM-OELTWG (Rome, 21-24 October) (final list of countries that receive funding and alternate to the regional focal point at OELTWG)
Dear SAICM National Focal Points for Asia Pacific countries,
(1) Participants in the OELTWG
Last week I sent you a message about the finalization of the list of countries that receive funding for the participation in the SAICM Open-ended Legal and Technical Working Group (OELTWG). In addition to the countries that I listed in my message last week (Bangladesh, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Palau, Syria and Yemen), I also received a cc of a pre-registration letter Pakistan. Taking into account all the information I had received, I finalized the list as follows, and forwarded it to the SAICM Secretariat.
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- China
- Indonesia
- Kiribati
- Malaysia
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palau
- Philippines
- Sri Lanka
- Vietnam
- Yemen
It should be noted that the following countries will also receive support for extended stay of their participants in the Conference of the Parties to Rotterdam Convention.
- Iran
- Jordan
- Maldives
- Nepal
- Samoa
- Syrian Arab Republic
- Thailand
There are also countries that participate without travel support, including the Republic of Korea, Qatar and Japan.
(2) Alternate to the Regional Focal Point at OELTWG
With this e-mail I have to let you know that I will not be able to attend the OELTWG meeting in person, due to other domestic commitments. My colleague Ms Keiko Segawa is going to attend representing my Ministry. I would like to ask her to act as alternate to the Regional Focal Point at the meeting, by co-ordinating the Asia Pacific regional meetings etc. This decision is based our agreement at our regional meeting in Bangkok that "If the regional focal point is unable to carry out his functions, the Government from which the regional focal point was nominated may provide an alternative." I think this provision foresee situations such as the departure of the regional focal point from his office, but I think we can understand that this applies also to the current situation where I cannot fulfill my functions at a meeting. Some of you may already know Keiko since she has been quite active in SAICM, mercury and other chemicals issues. Please let me know whether there is any problem with this.
I think you have already received a message from the SAICM Secretariat that documents for the Rome meeting are available from the SAICM website. I recommend that you give your thoughts to these documents well before the meeting, and I look forward to the success of the meeting.
Best regards,
Esak
Eisaku Toda
Asia-Pacific Regional Focal Point for SAICM
E-mail:saicm@iges.or.jp
Monday, September 29, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
25 September 2008: Re: Subject: SAICM-OELTWG (Rome, 21-24 October) and related workshop (Bangkok, 2-4 December)
Dear SAICM National Focal Points for Asia Pacific countries,
In my recent message I invited your comments on my selection of countries that receive funding for the participation in OELTWG by yesterday (Tuesday 14 Sep). I received responses from Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nepal, Palau, Syria and Yemen. I also received a message from Myanmar that it is also considering nomination.
I also talked with the SAICM Secretariat about the most recent situation and clarification about the synergies with the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention. I was informed that the participants in Rotterdam COP who extend their stay for SAICM OELTWG should be understood as additional funded participants to the 15 places allocated to the Asia-Pacific Region for funding support. This means that we can select a little more countries for funding support.
Therefore, from what I had heard, I submitted the following list of countries:
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- China
- Indonesia
- Kiribati
- Malaysia
- Mongolia
- Oman
- Palau
- Philippines
- Sri Lanka
- Vietnam
- Yemen
- One more from Central Asia
- One more to be decided
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- Iran
- Jordan
- Maldives
- Nepal
- Samoa
- Syrian Arab Republic
- Thailand
If you compare this list with the previous list, you will notice that the additions are Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Oman and Vietnam. There are still two slots that can be filled, so I will consider this by the end of this week.
Best regards,
Esak
Eisaku Toda
Asia-Pacific Regional Focal Point for SAICM
E-mail:saicm@iges.or.jp
In my recent message I invited your comments on my selection of countries that receive funding for the participation in OELTWG by yesterday (Tuesday 14 Sep). I received responses from Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nepal, Palau, Syria and Yemen. I also received a message from Myanmar that it is also considering nomination.
I also talked with the SAICM Secretariat about the most recent situation and clarification about the synergies with the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention. I was informed that the participants in Rotterdam COP who extend their stay for SAICM OELTWG should be understood as additional funded participants to the 15 places allocated to the Asia-Pacific Region for funding support. This means that we can select a little more countries for funding support.
Therefore, from what I had heard, I submitted the following list of countries:
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- China
- Indonesia
- Kiribati
- Malaysia
- Mongolia
- Oman
- Palau
- Philippines
- Sri Lanka
- Vietnam
- Yemen
- One more from Central Asia
- One more to be decided
<>
- Iran
- Jordan
- Maldives
- Nepal
- Samoa
- Syrian Arab Republic
- Thailand
If you compare this list with the previous list, you will notice that the additions are Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Oman and Vietnam. There are still two slots that can be filled, so I will consider this by the end of this week.
Best regards,
Esak
Eisaku Toda
Asia-Pacific Regional Focal Point for SAICM
E-mail:saicm@iges.or.jp
Friday, September 19, 2008
16 September 2008: SAICM-OELTWG (Rome, 21-24 October) and related workshop (Bangkok, 2-4 December)
Dear SAICM National Focal Points for Asia Pacific countries,
(1) SAICM OELTWG
I refer to my previous message to you on 6th August regarding the co-ordination of travel fund for the participation in SAICM Open-ended Legal and Technical Working Group to be held in Rome on 21-24 October 2008. Given the limitation of the funds for the travel support, I proposed a formula for selecting the countries to receive the travel funding. I have received messages from Bahrain, Bhutan, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Nepal, Oman, Palau, Qatar, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand and Yemen. Also I contacted the SAICM Secretariat for the recent information about the registration from Asia Pacific countries.
I heard no objection to the rough formula for allocating the places to subregions. Given the absence of agreed decision making mechanism within our region, what I can do is to try to produce a list of countries based on the list of countries that responded to my request before the deadline (originally 25 August but extended to 1 September in my later communication), and also based on a plausible reasoning. For Central Asia and North Asia, I have only heard from one country so we have one remaining place for each.
For South Asia and the Pacific Islands, the number of registered countries is the same with the number that I proposed earlier, so I selected these countries that already nominated participants. The difficulty was for the remaining two subregions. For Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines responded before (or just after) the deadline, but Malaysia contacted me at a later stage. Here I would have to base my decision on the timeliness of the response, and I include Indonesia and the Philippines in the list. Consideration will be given to Malaysia depending on the availability of additional resources, but these three countries may wish to co-ordinate between themselves to modify this arrangement. (Note that Thailand is already included in the list as our representative to QSP Executive Board).
For West Asia, I have heard from five countries (Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen) whereas we only have two places. So my decision is to include Yemen as it is one of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and leave one more place to further co-ordination. The four countries may wish to co-ordinate among themselves and contact me with any agreement. If I don't hear from you soon (say, by Tuesday next week), I will decide on the selection on one (or more) additional country.
From the reasoning I described above, the list of countries that I submitted to the SAICM Secretariat is the following;
- Bhutan
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Kiribati
- Mongolia
- Nepal
- Palau
- Philippines
- Samoa
- Sri Lanka
- Thailand
- Yemen
- One more from Central Asia
- One from North Asia
- One more from West Asia (Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Syrian Arab Republic)
I hope that you all understand my difficult situation where I was requested to produce a list of countries in the absence of decision making mechanism. I will further consult with the Secretariat about the availability of funding.
If you find any problem about the arrangement described above, please let me know by Tuesday 23rd September. Especially I will await nomination from Central or North Asian countries, and any news about co-ordination within Southeast Asia and West Asia. If I don't hear from Central or North Asia by that date, I will redirect the funding to other subregions.
(2) Informal Workshop on Stakeholders' Information Needs on Chemicals in Articles/Products
By now you should have received a message from the UNEP Secretariat about an Informal Workshop on Stakeholders' Information Needs on Chemicals in Articles/Products to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, 2-4 December 2008. Related information can be found at:
http://www.chem.unep.ch/unepsaicm/cheminprod_dec08/default.htm
The UNEP letter requests you to submit a registration form to me by 6 October if you are interested in participating in the Workshop. I will need to do a similar exercise of producing a list of nominated countries again.
In order to do this I would expect hearing from you as early as possible, prefarably with information as to who you nominate as a participant and how she/he could contribute to the discussion at the workshop (eg presentation on country situation, etc).
Best regards,
Esak
Eisaku Toda
Asia-Pacific Regional Focal Point for SAICM
E-mail:saicm@iges.or.jp
(1) SAICM OELTWG
I refer to my previous message to you on 6th August regarding the co-ordination of travel fund for the participation in SAICM Open-ended Legal and Technical Working Group to be held in Rome on 21-24 October 2008. Given the limitation of the funds for the travel support, I proposed a formula for selecting the countries to receive the travel funding. I have received messages from Bahrain, Bhutan, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Nepal, Oman, Palau, Qatar, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand and Yemen. Also I contacted the SAICM Secretariat for the recent information about the registration from Asia Pacific countries.
I heard no objection to the rough formula for allocating the places to subregions. Given the absence of agreed decision making mechanism within our region, what I can do is to try to produce a list of countries based on the list of countries that responded to my request before the deadline (originally 25 August but extended to 1 September in my later communication), and also based on a plausible reasoning. For Central Asia and North Asia, I have only heard from one country so we have one remaining place for each.
For South Asia and the Pacific Islands, the number of registered countries is the same with the number that I proposed earlier, so I selected these countries that already nominated participants. The difficulty was for the remaining two subregions. For Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines responded before (or just after) the deadline, but Malaysia contacted me at a later stage. Here I would have to base my decision on the timeliness of the response, and I include Indonesia and the Philippines in the list. Consideration will be given to Malaysia depending on the availability of additional resources, but these three countries may wish to co-ordinate between themselves to modify this arrangement. (Note that Thailand is already included in the list as our representative to QSP Executive Board).
For West Asia, I have heard from five countries (Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen) whereas we only have two places. So my decision is to include Yemen as it is one of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and leave one more place to further co-ordination. The four countries may wish to co-ordinate among themselves and contact me with any agreement. If I don't hear from you soon (say, by Tuesday next week), I will decide on the selection on one (or more) additional country.
From the reasoning I described above, the list of countries that I submitted to the SAICM Secretariat is the following;
- Bhutan
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Kiribati
- Mongolia
- Nepal
- Palau
- Philippines
- Samoa
- Sri Lanka
- Thailand
- Yemen
- One more from Central Asia
- One from North Asia
- One more from West Asia (Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Syrian Arab Republic)
I hope that you all understand my difficult situation where I was requested to produce a list of countries in the absence of decision making mechanism. I will further consult with the Secretariat about the availability of funding.
If you find any problem about the arrangement described above, please let me know by Tuesday 23rd September. Especially I will await nomination from Central or North Asian countries, and any news about co-ordination within Southeast Asia and West Asia. If I don't hear from Central or North Asia by that date, I will redirect the funding to other subregions.
(2) Informal Workshop on Stakeholders' Information Needs on Chemicals in Articles/Products
By now you should have received a message from the UNEP Secretariat about an Informal Workshop on Stakeholders' Information Needs on Chemicals in Articles/Products to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, 2-4 December 2008. Related information can be found at:
http://www.chem.unep.ch/unepsaicm/cheminprod_dec08/default.htm
The UNEP letter requests you to submit a registration form to me by 6 October if you are interested in participating in the Workshop. I will need to do a similar exercise of producing a list of nominated countries again.
In order to do this I would expect hearing from you as early as possible, prefarably with information as to who you nominate as a participant and how she/he could contribute to the discussion at the workshop (eg presentation on country situation, etc).
Best regards,
Esak
Eisaku Toda
Asia-Pacific Regional Focal Point for SAICM
E-mail:saicm@iges.or.jp
